


Leave it Behind

by tatooinesun



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Drabble, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-11 01:47:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7870810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatooinesun/pseuds/tatooinesun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He doesn't want him to go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leave it Behind

He watches his brother fade from grayscale emptiness into something bright and animated when he talks about this special academy for people like him on the other side of the country.   **  
**

“I can finally be someone. Like you,” Soul says to his shoelaces and Wes breaks into two divided pieces, one that swells with familiar pride that comes with being admired, and one that sinks under the weight of the involuntary feeling of worthlessness he’s brought into his brother’s life.

“You are someone,” he says a bit weakly, and a bit too late. He reaches a hand out to remedy his tone but his brother pulls away, and Wes lets his hand hang awkwardly between them before dropping it altogether. “Soul, it was never a competition between us.”

Soul jerks his head and sends his eyes towards the hazy purple sky. “I know that. But you’re the prodigy. You’re the first place winner. I can’t stay here and be anything other than _not you_ to them _.”_  

“You’re my little brother.” His voice is pleading and a little desperate now, because he doesn’t want nights like these, laying adjacent on the roof outside Soul’s window, to end. He doesn’t want to send his little brother some two-thousand some odd miles away to be with strangers who don’t know he doesn’t like loud noises or sleeping without a fan. People who don’t know how much raw talent the kid has, passion he hides behind apathetic shrugs and pocketed hands. He can’t keep him safe there. “What am I going to do without my little brother?”

“I don’t want to be just ‘Wes Evans’s little brother’,” Soul cuts across. He’s not upset or bitter or resentful, he’s letting years of pint up frustration tumble out of his lips, but it still hurts somewhere deep in Wes’s chest and the silence that spreads between them is tangible.    

“Of course you don’t,” Wes says softly after a while, and maybe he’s being a bit selfish, wanting to keep Soul safe and confined in a place that’s never really been a home to him. He sighs heavily and runs a hand through his hair. “When you do go, just… come back alive okay?” It’s trivial and too final, but he doesn’t know what else to say. It feels like he’s sending his kid brother off to war.  

He swears he hears Soul sigh in relief. “Don’t worry. I won’t leave you alone with this lot.”

Wes laughs and nods his head but he’s never felt more distant from the summer-kissed scraped up kids they used to be. They’re completely different people now, and it’s time to walk different paths.

They lay on that roof and stare up at the stars together for one last time.   


End file.
